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The Black Man

Introduction

The only extant English version of The Black Man appears in Francis Kirkman’s The Wits, or Sport upon Sport (Part II, 1673). However, the style seems considerably earlier and a Dutch version, Monsieur Sullemans Soete Vryagi, dated 1633—although by no means identical—has many common factors, suggesting it could have been derived from the English Jig, possibly the result of one of Kemp’s tours. Interestingly, a similar Jig entitled Mum, was performed by Hamburg comedians in 1674, the year after Kirkman’s publication. No tune titles are given.

Characters The Black Man, a pedlar of boot polish, stove black, ironware etc Thumpkin, a country clown Two Gentlemen, city bullies/pimps Brush, a brush pedlar Susan, a barmaid

Synopsis In a touching pastoral scene, sweethearts Thumpkin and Susan declare their love. They are interrupted by the Two Gentlemen, who kidnap Susan. Disguised as an old man, Thumpkin returns to rescue her and, while her captors are fighting over her, the young couple escape. The Gentlemen catch up with them again and, in revenge, force Thumpkin to stand on a stool covered by a sheet and command him only to cry ‘Mum’. A passing brush pedlar takes Thumpkin for a ghost. Deciding to have some fun, Thumpkin changes his ‘Mum’ to a devilish ‘Ho ho’ and at first frightens The Black Man (whose blackened face may, like the collier, have associated him with the devil). The two friends change places and the returning Gentlemen are scared away, first by the ‘ghostly’ Black Man’s ‘Ho ho!’ from under the sheet, and then by—the now also blackened—Thumpkin whom they take to be the devil.

Recordings

An unusual and delightfully bawdy offering from the irrepressible Lucie Skeaping and her collaborators The City Waites. Today we think of a jig as simply a dance, but in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England the word was used to de ...» More

Details

Part 01: Quoth John to Joan
Sweet Susan, remember the words I have said (Thumpkin/Susan)

Thumpkin: Sweet Susan, remember the words I have saidSusan: I’le rest on my Thumpkin, I’le do as I mayThumpkin: Then soon in the night I will come to thy bed And spend the whole time in sweet pleasure and play; I’le chase thee, Susan: I’le embrace thee, my love and delight,Thumpkin: And spend the whole time in sweet sports of the night.

Susan: But what if you afterwards should me dislike, And not be contented to make me your wife?Thumpkin: Ne’re fear, I will stand to it if I do strike— Although it may cost poor Thumpkin his life! I’le love thee, Susan: I’le prove thee, whoever says no,Thumpkin: Jog on then pretty Susan, come Susan let us go.

Part 02: The Indian Queen
Y'are well overtaken—wither, sir, so fast? (Gentleman 1/Thumpkin/Gentleman 2)

Gentleman 1: Y’are well overtaken—wither, sir, so fast?Thumpkin: I’m jogging hard by, sir, Gentleman 1: Pray make you not such haste.Gentleman 2: H’as got him a pretty companion by his side …Gentleman 1: Are you the groom, sir, and this your fair bride?Thumpkin: Why, aye, sir! Gentleman 1: You lye, sir! Thumpkin: What a pox mean you by this?Gentleman 2: Then see, sir, we’ll fee, sir, fee your lass with a kiss.

Thumpkin: I thought your chaps water’d—come, Sue, let us go—Gentleman 1: Nay soft, sir, a while, sir, it must not be so!Thumpkin: We’ve paid for our passage, and we must now be free—Gentleman 2: You may go if you please, but your lass stays with me!Thumpkin: Alas, sir! Gentleman 1: No pass, sir, by this hand I protest— I speak now in earnest, sir, I mean it not in jest.

Thumpkin: In jest or in earnest, I care not a pin,Gentleman 2: Now soft, sir! Brother Roger, pray what doth he mean?Thumpkin: ’Tis not you bravados shall bear her away—Gentleman 1: Perhaps, sir, in this valour, you’ll show some bloody fray! Draws swordThumpkin: Oh no sir! Gentleman 2: Why so, sir? Thumpkin: I mean, sir, not to fight—Gentlemen: Then pack, sir, your back, sir, and get out of our sight!

Gentleman 2: Come sweetheart, look not so sadly, For the loss of a countrey clown, Prithee look merrily, prithee look chearily Cast your sorrows down;Susan: How can I look merrily, chearily In the absence of my dear? I cannot look merrily, chearily, Since my true love is not here.

Gentleman 1: Hold thee contented, sweet Susan, Thou shalt have all thy liking Thou shalt get no harm here, But for your kindness we are striking Gentleman 2: Come Sue, look not so sadly, For the loss of a Country Clown— Prithee look merrily, chearily … Cast your sorrows down.

Part 04: Walsingham
As ye came from Walsingham (Thumpkin/Gentleman 2/Gentleman 1)

Gentleman 1: In this same plight, sir, thus disguis’d, A mumming you must go.Thumpkin: (muffled) I never got a wench with child— Why should you use me so?Gentleman 1: No matter for your wenching, sir, If anybody come, Remember ’tis our will, that still You answer all with ‘mum’.

Thumpkin: (muffled) But how if any body, sir, Should ask me what’s a clock?Gentleman 1: Then answer them with ‘mum’, you slave! Thumpkin: (muffled) Then will they think I mock. Gentleman 2: No matter for their thinking, sir, If any body come, Remember still, it is our will, You answer all with ‘mum’!

Brush: Come buy a brush for all your cloathes, To keep them from the dust and moths; Handsil [charity] I will not forsake, Lucky money I would take; Come buy a brush, or table book, Will ye buy a brush to—Thumpkin: Mum

Brush: What is this I do behold? All my joynts do quake with cold; ’Tis the spirit of some lewd knave, Newly risen from the grave: And wandring from his home, doth fright Those that walk i’th’ dead of night. Gentle spirit, tell to some The cause of thy appearance—Thumpkin: Mum

Brush: ’Tis a gentle ghost I see— He and I shall soon agree; I’le barter all the ware I have here For bottle ale and double beer. Come, my friend, now come, To the next red lettuce [‘red lattice’=tavern] let us—Thumpkin: Mum

Brush: What, nothing but Mum? Mum by yourself, and be hang’d if you will! Brush exit

Thumpkin: O woe is me, o woe is me, Was ever a man thus crost? In this poor plight, in this poor plight, My wits I’ve almost lost. My pretty Sue, I bid adieu, And here like one that’s dumb, In this sad plight, much like a spright, I must answer all with ‘Mum’. But ’tis no matter— enter The Black Man I’ll turn my ‘Mum’ to ‘ho, ho, ho’— And fright the next doth come or go!

Part 09: The Gelding of the Devil
Black do I cry, will you any of me buy? (The Black Man/Thumpkin)

The Black Man: Black do I cry, will you any of me buy? Look on my wares, and view them all well! Cloathes I do want and my money is scant, and my trade, pox on’t, is but poor and bare. Buy my black ware! Maidens if you will, come and try your skill! I have black, buy my black, the best that ever you did lack! Come a-swop—be it old boots or shooes! Handsil not refuse! Come buy my black tinderbox— what is’t you lack? How long shall I call and cry e’re handsil I take? Maidens, buy!

Thumpkin: Ho, Ho, Ho!

The Black Man: But ah, to me, what’s this I see, My mirth and glee is turn’d to grief! Oh, gentle spright, thy ghastly sight Does me affright, what shall I do?

Part 10: Grim King of the Ghosts
Man, forbear this place (Thumpkin/The Black Man)

The Black Man: What, Thumpkin? ‘Old House’ do’s call me? If I had been an old house thou hads’t shaken me to pieces e’re this—I’m sure the gable end of my house began to open in the joice. But why did you fright me so, Thumpkin? Take off that sheet.

Thumpkin: Ah, Old House—I have had the worst luck. Didst thou not know my sweetheart?

The Black Man: What, Sue at the Church Stile?

Thumpkin: Aye, the same; a couple of coney-catching [con-men] rascals have stoln her from me.

The Black Man: What, were they butchers or rabbet men?

Thumpkin: They might be butchers by their slippery tricks, but I take them to be Gentlemen [criminals], coney-catchers [pimps], smell-smocks [lechers], tear-plackets [pick-pockets]. Now, Old House, if thou wilt help me to get them again, thou shalt have her maidenhead if thou cans’t get it.

The Black Man: Says’t thou so? A match if it stand! But what must I do?

Thumpkin: Then man forebear, this garment wear To all that comes and all that goes To thy best skill perform thy will By answering all with ‘Oh, oh!’ Why, you take this sheet and do as I did …

Gentleman 1: Our sentinel keeps well his standingThe Black Man: (under sheet) Ho, ho! [traditionally the call of the devil]Gentleman 2: But has not done to our commanding!The Black Man: Ho, ho!Gentleman 1: Wherefore did he leave his mumming?Gentleman 2: The reason was of our not coming.

Gentleman 1: This house is haunted surely, brother!

Enter Thumpkin covered in blacking

Gentleman 2: See, here comes just such another! Gentleman 1: Brother, I think it is the devil!Gentleman 2: He’s come to plague us for our evil!

The Black Man: A kind young man you have abused, Thumpkin: And in troth, his love misused, The Black Man: Your furious weapons straight deliverThumpkin: See how the rascals quake and quiver!

Gentlemen: We do, we do—here, pray sirs, take ’em! (dropping their swords)The Black Man: Our looks do like an ague shake em!Gentlemen: It does, it does, pray leave your roaring!Thumpkin: Be gone, and say y’ave scaped a scouring!